Company Exposed For Launching Secret Research Program after Facing Asbestos Claims

According to The Center for Public Integrity, in 2005, Georgia-Pacific Corp. found itself facing a product liability lawsuit of over $1 billion for a product it had not manufactured in nearly three decades: the cancer-causing mineral asbestos.

Accused in over 60,000 legal claims, Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific launched a secret research program in hopes of clearing its name in regards to the carcinogen. The company hired consultants to conduct studies and publish results, with input from the company’s legal department. The company is doing this in an effort to keep information hidden from thousands of plaintiffs.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission had banned all asbestos-containing joint compounds in 1978, and Georgia-Pacific, the maker of a widely-used version called Ready-Mix, had previously raised no objection. In 2005, however, as asbestos-related diseases mounted, the company reexamined the issue with one aim: to defend claims filed by their consumers that are now dying from mesothelioma.

In its research program, Georgia-Pacific paid 18 scientists a collective $6 million to work on asbestos litigation and was under orders to hold “in the strictest confidence” all information generated.

Just like tobacco companies did years earlier, Georgia-Pacific controlled the scientific studies and claimed all communications were privileged and not subject to discovery in litigation.

The company is trying to “rewrite history,” stated Linda Reinstein, co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. “Georgia-Pacific funded junk science in an attempt to contest the known facts about asbestos and negate its culpability in this man-made disaster.”

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